THREE weeks on from New Zealand and the V8 Supercars circus has pitched the big top all the way across on the western coast of Australia.

We look at the big questions ahead of this weekend’s Perth 400 at Barbagallo Raceway.

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Lowndes lost the title lead on the back of poor runs at Winton and in NZ.Source: Getty Images

WILL RED BULL BOUNCE BACK AT BARBAGALLO?Initially, we thought it was a blip. After all, they struggled at Winton last year, maybe it was just their bogey track? Then came Pukekohe.

Red Bull’s trip to New Zealand was all but a complete disaster. Although Jamie Whincup managed to get his car on the front row twice, a pair of fourths was all he really had to show from the weekend. Craig Lowndes had it even worse. Sure he stood on the podium, but his points lead turned to dust on the way to a 16th, a 10th and a 20th.

The New Zealand races demonstrated that Winton wasn’t just a blip on the radar for V8 Supercars’s reigning champion team.

As they looking to get their season back on track, they could go to few better venues than Barbagallo Raceway. Triple Eight has won half of the V8 races held there since 2008, including blitzing all three races last year.

In fact, last year’s trip to the west marked the start of Whincup’s championship charge. His Sunday sweep kicked off a run of six wins in seven starts, laying the platform for his fifth V8 Supercars title.

Expect Red Bull to be back on the pace this weekend. If not, it will be a very busy one-month gap between Perth and Darwin for the crew in Banyo.

Mark Winterbottom looking to continue purple patch
2:01

Ford star Mark Winterbottom will be looking to consolidate his championship lead at the Perth 400, a race he says suits his team.

Fox Sports

14 May 2014

Sport/Motor Sport/V8

CAN WINTERBOTTOM CONTINUE HIS WINNING WAYS?Ford’s main man heads to a championship event as the hunted, rather than the hunter, for the first time since August 2008.

Six years ago, it was a hat-trick of wins at Barbagallo that launched Mark Winterbottom into the fight for the points lead. This year has been much the same. Frosty hasn’t stumbled into the lead by accident or by consistency; over the last two events, he has genuinely been the man to beat.

After a solid but unspectacular start to the season in Adelaide and at Symmons Plains, Winterbottom has strung together three wins and two seconds across the seven races since.

Crucially, his car has been fast on two vastly different circuits. The Pepsi Max Falcon was easy on its tyres through the abrasive twists and turns at Winton, where Winterbottom simply ran away with the Sunday race. Conversely, it handled the bumpy, high-speed sweeps of Pukekohe with ease.

Now that he has the points lead, it will be fascinating to watch how Winterbottom goes about retaining it. In recent years he has largely thrown caution to the wind. Think of his low-percentage move on Lowndes at Phillip Island last year, or the way he held off Whincup at Bathurst.

Now he has something to lose, will we see a more conservative Frosty emerge?

Holdsworth on his way to Erebus’s maiden V8 win.Source: Getty Images

CAN EREBUS SNEAK ANOTHER SURPRISE VICTORY?Once again the sleek, black and blue Mercedes will arrive at a 2014 V8 Supercars event without a major full-time sponsor.

Just like Winton back in March, it could prove to be another missed opportunity, with the Erebus Motorsport pair of Lee Holdsworth and Will Davison a shot at posting another stunning upset victory.

The E63s have spent 2014 edging closer and closer to the pace. They have made regular visits to the top 10 on the grid, while Davison is coming off the back of a strong charge from 16th to seventh in the most recent championship race at Pukekohe.

The Mercedes are getting closer to the horsepower required to match their rivals, while the normally abrasive Barbagallo surface could work in their favour if Holdsworth’s win at Winton is anything to go by.

Hopefully, if they are able to snag another win this weekend, it would finally see an answer for the team’s biggest question: when will they find a major sponsor?

Mostert has been edging closer to the front in recent races.Source: Getty Images

WILL CHAZ MOSTERT STEP OUT OF HIS TEAMMATE’S SHADOW?It’s easy to forget that Chaz Mostert has still yet to complete a full V8 championship season.

Barbagallo marks the one-year anniversary of his arrival in the main game. Every track he has been to so far this year — Winton excepted, thanks to its move to an early season slot — has been his first time racing there among the big boys.

He had a rough time at the Clipsal 500 and at Symmons Plains, but as FPR’s form has turned around Mostert has delivered. He took his first two podium finishes of the year at Pukekohe, not too far up the road from his title-leading teammate.

The next step will be for Mostert to start winning races for FPR, and that could happen as soon as this weekend.

Slade leading McLaughlin at Winton.Source: Getty Images

WILL WE SEE ANOTHER 2014 RACE WINNER?When we last lobbed at Barbagallo, there had already been seven V8 race winners in the 2013 season to that point. This year they’ve gone one better, with eight different drivers taking the chequered flag.

There are a number of drivers who are knocking on the door of success, and a good weekend from any of them could see them make it a ninth, 10th, or even an 11th winner in season 2014.

Scott McLaughlin has been knocking on the door of victory so hard in 2014 that it’s a surprise he hasn’t kicked it down with his mighty jandal. The Volvo has proven to be fast everywhere so far this year, and there’s no reason to suspect Barbagallo will prove any different.

Reynolds had a tough start to the season in Adelaide.Source: News Corp Australia

David Reynolds had perhaps his strongest race of the season on the Sunday at Pukekohe, but a tyre failure as he turned into the high-speed Turn 1 ended his hopes of ending up on the podium. He has been there or thereabouts all season, and he will surely be looking to capitalise on FPR’s rising stock.

Over at V8’s other quasi-factory team, Tim Slade has been quietly edging towards the front. A clutch failure on the grid at Pukekohe deprived him of a hard-earned front row start, typical of some of the luck the Supercheap Auto Racing driver has had all year. If he continues his improving form as he adapts to his new team, he will likely win a race before the season is out.

Throw in Will Davison and Chaz Mostert and the favourites are likely to have a fight on their hands this weekend.

WILL RAIN BE THE LEVELLER?The Bureau of Meteorology forecast makes for interesting reading for the teams, with showers forecast for the Perth area over the course of the weekend.

Apart from the early running at Winton, plus most of the test day, every other session of V8 Supercars practice, qualifying and racing so far this year has been conducted on bone-dry tracks. In fact, you have to go all the way back to the 2011 season finale at Homebush to find the most recent V8 Supercars race to be hit with showers. The closest we’ve come since was right here at Barbagallo in 2012, when the skies cleared after qualifying to allow for a dry race.

Light showers over the course of Saturday and Sunday could well throw the cat among the pigeons, especially if it falls during Saturday’s short 10-minute qualifying sessions.

Looking for a tip in the event of precipitation? Keep in mind that the last driver to win a genuinely wet V8 Supercars race was Rick Kelly at Sandown in 2011.

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